s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all]’s review of Taiwan Travelogue > Likes and Comments

Queer translated lit my lifeblood let's gooooooo.

Luke wrote: "Queer translated lit my lifeblood let's gooooooo."

Hell yea I’m so excited to read this!

I hope you were able to eat something, and satisfy your hunger, Steve. 😳

Karen wrote: "I hope you were able to eat something, and satisfy your hunger, Steve. 😳"

Oh I devoured some food immediately haha I plan on trying to seek out some of the foods mentioned in this, I have a buddy from Malaysia who just did a PhD in politics of food centering on Asian foods so I’m mailing him a copy of this book to be like please tell me all the cultural food commentary I am missing because I know it’s there I just have no frame of reference haha

Good idea! I hope he gives you everything you need! 🥰

omg i'm from taiwan! I NEED to read this lol!

Karen wrote: "Good idea! I hope he gives you everything you need! 🥰"

We've had some cool discussions!

Annie wrote: "omg i'm from taiwan! I NEED to read this lol!"

Oooo YES I would LOVE to hear what you think of this (and learn some of the food cultural commentary going on that I'm missing too haha). I hope you enjoy, I really love this one and the translation aspect of it is really cool,

The way you write your reviews is beyond outstanding! Love this as always. I need to read more Japanese literature

i love this review!! the book's concept sounds hard to understand, but you explain things super clearly.

In an addendum to your statement about the quote from Camus/Picasso, I think the confusion about the quote coming from Camus stems from a few threads/sources (including one handwritten page of a manuscript posted to Twitter), but the most interesting one to me (and probably just me) is a two-day conference that was held at the Centre Pompidou in 2002. The conference was called "Albert Camus et le mensonge" (Albert Camus and Lying) and focused on themes of truth-telling and lying in the works of Camus. I can't find the full transcripts of the talks online but one of the brief sections I can see on Google Books includes the line (roughly) "I will not question the relationship between Camus' fiction as a 'truthful lie' and the truth." There's also a super interesting interview that Catherine Egan from 3:AM Magazine held with Catherine Camus at that same conference.

Dot wrote: "In an addendum to your statement about the quote from Camus/Picasso, I think the confusion about the quote coming from Camus stems from a few threads/sources (including one handwritten page of a ma..."

Oh that is interesting I need to check that interview out. I had seen the quote before many times but went to find a source and got lost in a web of people thinking they found it and realizing it wasn’t. And somehow that Picasso quote seems connected but mis attributed at some point?

Sarah {needs active mutuals!} ♡ wrote: "The way you write your reviews is beyond outstanding! Love this as always. I need to read more Japanese literature"

Thank you so much! I need to go back and finish it haha I ran out of time and rushed the ending but also…I don’t want to give away too much since this is one I think more people will reading interested about the book rather than having read it? So maybe in a few months I’ll add more haha

Sounds intriguing.

eva wrote: "i love this review!! the book's concept sounds hard to understand, but you explain things super clearly."

Thank you so much! Yea I liked how subtle it was but also complex, glad it made sense haha I had a hard time figuring out how to structure this one!

Cookie M. wrote: "Sounds intriguing."

It was really cool—I definitely see why this was deserving on the Translation prize!

Amazing thank you for this review!!!

Ba wrote: "Amazing thank you for this review!!!"

Thank you so much. This is such a well done and fascinating book, I'm so glad the National Book Award is bringing it attention because...wow.

Excellent review. I really must read this one.

Camelia Rose wrote: "Excellent review. I really must read this one."

Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy, I really loved this one.

Okay, you sold me on this book! Gonna see if I can get my hands on it somewhere

Christi wrote: "Okay, you sold me on this book! Gonna see if I can get my hands on it somewhere"

Oh excellent, I hope you enjoy! I’m still kind of in awe of this one. I look forward to your thoughts on it!

An exquisite review and analysis! This really sounds like a deserving award winner for translation. Metafiction is becoming a new favorite niche genre for me, can't wait to read this. Glad you enjoyed it!

Akankshya wrote: "An exquisite review and analysis! This really sounds like a deserving award winner for translation. Metafiction is becoming a new favorite niche genre for me, can't wait to read this. Glad you enjo..."

Thank you so much! YEA isn't metafiction really fun? I had a huge metafiction phase back in college after Cloud Atlas blew my mind. I hope you enjoy this one, I really loved it and I can't wait to hear what you think!

Thanks for mentioning the recurring character and the link! Will be attending The Other Book Club's session for the translation, and was trying to figure out if any of the characters from the 1st book cover in the article turn up since Taiwanese press talk about how she is expanding her Japanese colonial era yuri universe, but couldn't find any common characters.

Thank you for this review! I am at 15% of the book right now and this really helped me center and keep in mind all the subtle elements that the author included. This book is much more intricate than I realized.

Excellent review. Thank you.